August 20, 2019

Italian officials order migrant ship evacuated amid health fears

Italian prosecutors have ordered that 83 migrants onboard a charity vessel that has been anchored off the island of Lampedusa for 19 days must be immediately disembarked, citing the “explosive’’ psychological and medical condition of the passengers.

The rescue ship, operated by the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, has been refused permission to dock by Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini.

The announcement made by the magistrates came shortly after the Spanish government announced that it would send a naval ship to pick up the 83 migrants and bring them back to Spain.

It would have been the first time in the history of the migrant crisis that a member country of the European Union intervened with one of its ships, and in the territory of another member state, to recover asylum seekers who have been prohibited from landing.

But the turning point came Tuesday evening. After visiting the ship, prosecutors declared that the hygienic and health conditions onboard had “reached worrisome levels”. Prosecutors also ordered ship impounded in order to carry out a full inspection of the health and hygienic conditions in which the migrants were forced to live due to Italy’s ban on landing asylum seekers.

‘’The situation aboard the Spanish NGO migrant rescue ship Open Arms is explosive,” Agrigento chief prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio said on Tuesday morning, before he travelled to Lampedusa by helicopter to monitor the situation and “restore calm so that no one gets hurt”.

Last weekend doctors from the Italian Order of Malta rescue unit reported that the migrants were “living piled on top of each other, with no possibility of walking”.

On Tuesday, another migrant jumped off the boat, in a desperate attempt to swim to Lampedusa, followed by two groups, one of nine and another of five, who launched themselves into the sea. The men were all rescued by the Italian coastguard, who brought them to a hospital. On Sunday, a few migrants had attempted the same escape and were rescued from the sea by Open Arms volunteers.

The Spanish defence minister, Margarita Robles, spoke of a “humanitarian emergency” onboard the Open Arms, declaring that Spain “will not look the other way as minister Matteo Salvini is doing”.

The Spanish government said that a warship, Audaz, would depart from the military base of Rota in Cádiz, and take three days to arrive in Lampedusa before bringing the migrants to Mallorca.

“Spanish NGO, Spanish ship, Spanish port: rightly so. We are no longer the refugee camp of Europe,” said Salvini, reiterating his refusal to let them disembark.

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Italian prosecutors have ordered that 83 migrants onboard a charity vessel that has been anchored off the island of Lampedusa for 19 days must be immediately disembarked, citing the “explosive’’ psychological and medical condition of the passengers.

The rescue ship, operated by the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, has been refused permission to dock by Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini.

The announcement made by the magistrates came shortly after the Spanish government announced that it would send a naval ship to pick up the 83 migrants and bring them back to Spain.

It would have been the first time in the history of the migrant crisis that a member country of the European Union intervened with one of its ships, and in the territory of another member state, to recover asylum seekers who have been prohibited from landing.

But the turning point came Tuesday evening. After visiting the ship, prosecutors declared that the hygienic and health conditions onboard had “reached worrisome levels”. Prosecutors also ordered ship impounded in order to carry out a full inspection of the health and hygienic conditions in which the migrants were forced to live due to Italy’s ban on landing asylum seekers.

‘’The situation aboard the Spanish NGO migrant rescue ship Open Arms is explosive,” Agrigento chief prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio said on Tuesday morning, before he travelled to Lampedusa by helicopter to monitor the situation and “restore calm so that no one gets hurt”.

Last weekend doctors from the Italian Order of Malta rescue unit reported that the migrants were “living piled on top of each other, with no possibility of walking”.

On Tuesday, another migrant jumped off the boat, in a desperate attempt to swim to Lampedusa, followed by two groups, one of nine and another of five, who launched themselves into the sea. The men were all rescued by the Italian coastguard, who brought them to a hospital. On Sunday, a few migrants had attempted the same escape and were rescued from the sea by Open Arms volunteers.

The Spanish defence minister, Margarita Robles, spoke of a “humanitarian emergency” onboard the Open Arms, declaring that Spain “will not look the other way as minister Matteo Salvini is doing”.

The Spanish government said that a warship, Audaz, would depart from the military base of Rota in Cádiz, and take three days to arrive in Lampedusa before bringing the migrants to Mallorca.

“Spanish NGO, Spanish ship, Spanish port: rightly so. We are no longer the refugee camp of Europe,” said Salvini, reiterating his refusal to let them disembark.